I don't have an actual craft room. I have been promised one but it will be a long time coming. The dining room table will have to do in the mean time. I hope to share some of things that I make with you and a little bit of chat.

Thursday, 28 January 2016

How is your week going? It was certainly nice to see some sun today even if it was a bit cold.

I do have to apologise that I have made a Christmas card. I did promise myself that I would start making them in January and up until today I hadn't made one. Also I was rather naughty and I had bought quite a lot of Sue Wilson's Festive dies from the last release and I hadn't got round to using some of them. This made me feel a bit guilty so I decided today was the day to make an effort. After all if I only make one Christmas card a month I will only have 12 when we get to Christmas.

This card was made entirely with Sue Wilson dies. I am loving the double pierced squares and rectangles sets a and b. When I was at Newbury John Lockwood showed me how to use them in a different way. I cut a wide frame with two of the dies from the double pierced rectangles set then I cut an inner frame in a contrasting colour and stuck it over the top of the first frame. I cut the snowflake background die in white to go behind the frame. On a piece of dark blue card with a double sided sticky sheet cut to size. I stuck the background to the sticky sheet and then covered the whole thing with Diamond Sprinkles.

I cut lots poinsettias with the Classic Poinsettia dies in a pale blue and I inked the edges I did shape them with a ball tool.

I added the sentiment to the centre of the design.

I was very pleased with how this card turned out. I now have an idea for a 50th birthday day card that I need to make. Enjoy the last day of the week the weekend is nearly here.

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

How is you week going? I hope everything is okay for you. We are plodding along. Life is almost back to normal.

I actually thought of this design as I was walking to work this morning. Then there was a bit of a struggle to remember when I got home.

This is quite a small card just 6" x 6". I am loving my Double Pierced Square dies. You will probably see them used on a lot of my cards from now on. It is so much quicker to use them than pierce around the mat with a piercing ruler. I did use lots of bits from my bits box to make this card.

The flowers were cut with Daisy Cluster die set by Sue Wilson. The bigger die was cut in green and the flowers in pink. The cross was cut with a Spellbinder die in gold. You can just about see the bunnies I added by the sentiment. I want to make about 20 Easter cards I might make a version of this card.

Here is my stash from the Newbury Craft show. A lot of it comes from the goodie bags we were given on the way in. I am going to share some of this with a couple of crafty friends.

Sunday, 24 January 2016

I hope you are having a great weekend. We had a brilliant time yesterday. First we went to the craft show at Newbury Racecourse there I even had a good chat with my friend John Lockwood. I also bought lots of lovely crafty stash. Then we went into Newbury town centre and met our daughter, her boyfriend and his parents for a meal. Finally we went to Andover to see the plot the house, that our daughter and her boyfriend are going to buy, is being built. It happens to be near where one of my crafty friends lives and I was able to drop off a little piece of art that she asked for her birthday to be part of a collage in her craft room.

As it has already been shared on Facebook I am sharing the little piece of art on my blog today.

I was a bit naughty and ordered the Double Pierced Squares and Rectangles set B to go with set A which I already had. They came on Friday and I couldn't resist a play. Can you see them in the mats and layers I created.

I cut the window from the white mat then I embossed it with a mask and inked through the mask to make the wall. I reinserted the frame and behind the window I stuck the patterned and the cats.

I used a Spellbinder die set to create the flower pot and flowers.

I used another Spellbinder die to cut this and I inked through it before I took it out for the die. The sentiment was cut with some Tattered Lace dies.

Here I am with John Lockwood. You know his cards look even better when you see them in the flesh.

This is Wendy Kadzilo who organises the Craft Show at Newbury Racecourse. On the way in after you have paid you are given a Goody Bag that has all sorts of Crafty Goodies in it. She is a lovely lady and wasn't really keen to have her photo taken.

I think my friend liked her piece of art. I do hope she gets a lot more to make the collage in he Craft Room.

Friday, 22 January 2016

I hope that you have had a good week and that you have something nice planned for the weekend. We are off to Newbury for a craft show at the Racecourse and after we are meeting with our daughter, her boyfriend and his parents, it should be interesting.

I have been busy again making samples for Tattered Lace. These samples were for a one day wonder set of shows over Tuesday and Wednesday on Ideal World and Create and Craft.

These samples were made with the Essential Pearl Pin Dots Rectangles Die Set.

For this sample I used the large and the small rectangle.

I made an easel card with the large and the medium rectangles.

The tag I made with the large and the small rectangles. I cut the large rectangle in half and trimmed a bit from each half and stuck them together on the tag. Then I covered the joins with the smaller rectangles and finished them off with an flower and a pearl.

I decided to use the larger rectangle die to make a card front. I cut it once in blue and then I stuck it onto some white card and I cut round the edge by hand. I did something similar with the image.

These samples were made with the Mini Circle Stepper Die Set

They are very easy to make all the scoring is done by the die. I must admit I went over the scoring to help fold the cards.

They are fun to decorate. I think they would make great place setting cards,

This is the above card being shown on Create and Craft.

With this one I cut down a much larger die to decorate it.

I did try to hint at the place setting idea with this card.

This is actually the one I made first.

Here it is on Create and Craft right at the front of the display.

Here are all the samples together. I have got very good at packing parcels to send to Tattered Lace.

I hope that you have a good weekend and that the weather isn't too unkind.

Wednesday, 20 January 2016

How is your week going? I hope you aren't being too badly affected by the cold. I am getting used to being home on my own now my husband has gone back to work. So in my afternoons off I have been able to catch up on some of my crafting.

I was asked by a friend to make a card for her friend who is going to have a special birthday soon. I did find it a bit hard to get started.

This is the design I came up with. The first thing I decided to do was to make a frame with my Sue Wilson Pierced Square dies. I used three of the dies and embossed them first then I removed the middle die and did the cutting. I think it makes a rather nice larger frame and all pierced. I am hoping to treat myself to Set B so that my layers can be thinner. I found the pretty backing paper in my stash.

I added a Sue Wilson butterfly in the corner.

The flowers were made with a Spellbinder die set. The leaves are Faux Quilled Leaves by Sue Wilson.

The Happy Birthday was cut with a Memory box die. Once cut I sprayed it with a spray glue and then covered it with glitter.

I gave this to my friend yesterday and she was very pleased with it and she has plenty of time to send it to her friend. It is an 8" x 8" card so it will go on a large letter stamp.

Monday, 18 January 2016

I hope you had a good weekend and that the snow didn't affect your plans too much. We didn't have any snow down here in Southampton just a bit of rain. We did find a lovely big frame for the Admiralty Chart so it can be made into the table plan for our niece's wedding. I only had to trim a little off the chart to make it fit. I am quite relieved that this is sorted I was wondering how it would be done. I just have to wait for details of where the guests are sitting before I can proceed any further.

About a week ago I was sent some gatefold embossing folders with matching edge dies by Tattered Lace to make some samples with. The folders and dies are in a bundle that is being released on Create and Craft today. They are part of a four day deal.

Here are the samples I sent in. I made three cards and two boxes.

This is the first card I made it uses the Opulent Lace Embossing folder.

Next I used the Demure Lace Embossing folder to make this card.

Then I used the Sumptuous Lace embossing folder. The folders are very pretty and I used some gilding wax to show off the detail.

Then I decided to make some boxes. This one was decorated with the Decadent Lace embossing folder.

Finally for this box I went back to Opulent Lace embossing folder. I really did like making the boxes and I think they worked well.

I do hope that you have a good week. Thank you for stopping by. I am hoping to catch up on my crafting now that my husband is back at work.

Saturday, 16 January 2016

The weekend is here. I hope whatever you have planned works out. We are hoping to get some bits sorted for our niece's wedding believe it on not we have to mount an Admiralty Chart for the table plan. I say we because I can't do these things with out my husband.

Today sees the start of a new challenge on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge blog. The new theme is All About the Boy. The Design Team have interpreted it in lots of different ways they are worth a look.

I created the background for this card with a free footprint stamp from a magazine from some time ago. I stamped it with Perfect Medium and heat embossed with a sparkly black powder. Then I inked over the background with several shades of Distress Ink.

The main image was created with The Adam set from Crafter's Companion. I stamped the image in black ink on to the background. Then I stamped the image again on anther piece of paper and this one I coloured with my Promarkers before I cut it out. I did do a bit of inking on the background for the grass and sky before I added the cut out image on foam pads.

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

I hope you are having a good week. I have had a few ups and downs but the really good news is that my husband was able to go back to work today. We saw the doctor at the hospital yesterday and he was really pleased with my husband's progress. He just needs to build up strength in his hand now. All the healing won't be done for about a year. It was strange coming home today and him not being here but it is for the best.

On our way back from the hospital I bought a copy of Issue 148 January of Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine. I was very lucky to have had a card published in this issue.

This card has been on my blog before. It was one of the samples I made for some Tattered Lace shows on Create and Craft.